Week 4 Case Study: EDPY 552: Ethan: Early Intervention
Hello Wanda,
I am happy to share the information I have learned in my course about autism with you. I must state right from
the beginning, I am in no way an expert in the field, but I am happy to give you some thoughts to help you
navigate the bewildering array of services that Ethan can access.
I can tell you that no one intervention is “a cure all” for autism. An intervention that might work for one child
may not have the same effect on another. It is best if there is a collaborative team of people, including you to
work with Ethan and help him develop. The team will be made up of people such as the therapists that
specialize in autism related interventions, physiotherapists, and speech and language pathologists. There are a
lot of people from different professions that are available to support Ethan and yourself.
Ethan will soon qualify for the Early Education program that is provided by Edmonton Public School Board
(there is a Catholic School Board equivalent). The Early Education program is for children who are at least 2½
as of September 1st and it supports children with special education by developing important skills and
behaviours before Kindergarten. This is great program that runs over four half-days a week and there are
specialized programs for children with autism. If you are interested, talk to your social worker, Ethan could
potentially qualify for two years of the program before kindergarten.
There is a perplexing amount of intervention strategies that are available to support Ethan. On the next page
there is a scale of the eight strategies your mentioned and on the pages after that, I provided a very brief
description of the interventions. The majority of information I provided for you came from a collaborative
lesson between the students of the autism course I took. As for the scale, on the left end are interventions that
are based on the applied behavioural analysis (ABA) approach, on the right end are the interventions based on
the developmental approach. The ones in the middle are a blending of the two approaches. ABA is a
psychological model where positive behaviour is brought about through constant positive re-enforcement. Do
not worry; the days of using negative re-enforcement to eliminate unwanted behaviours no longer exists. The
developmental approach is where the people in a therapeutic relationship with Ethan meet him where he is
developmentally and help him progress.
I cannot tell you which intervention will work best for Ethan. There is evidence and scientific research that
supports all the interventions. Interventions based on ABA are the most heavily studied because they have been
around the longest. You are, and always will be Ethan’s greatest advocate. I suggest you make list of goals for
Ethan and prioritize those goals based on what you think is most important. During your initial meetings with
therapists and psychologists, they will access Ethan to see where he is at developmentally. That data along with
your list will help the collaborative team make an intervention plan for Ethan
As you make your intervention plan do not forget that Ethan will require different strategies for the different
challenges he has. His communication skills will require the help of a speech pathologist and they will be able
to give you a professional opinion on what is best for Ethan. A therapist that specializes in autism and a
physiotherapist can help you make a plan for Ethan’s aberrant and self-stimulatory behaviours. Your family
doctor can help with Ethan’s ear infections and constant lack of energy. It must seem overwhelming, but
remember you are not alone. There is plenty of supports out there. I hope this helps get you started.
I have provided a few Internet links to resources I find particularly useful and some phone numbers of agencies
here in Edmonton you can contact.
If there is anyway I can help please let me know,
JP
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